Just Kite It dot com, a community for kiteboarding enthusiasts

After speaking with a friend kiter, she joined a few kiting message board forums, which seemed so outdated in comparison to the social media technology of web 2.0 standards. Armed with not much information about kiteboarding she took her chances and called a school in the Great South Bay, New York in July. Good idea? Bad idea. Summer is the worst time to learn the sport in New York and the nasty green flies leave you with painful bites. Not only is the Great South Bay a two-three hour train ride on the LIRR from Brooklyn and Manhattan, learning to kite is not inexpensive. A lesson can cost anywhere from $150-$200 per hour depending on the level of instructor. At times the school will share your lesson with another student and not inform you of this. In some cases, you could get five-hour lessons for $500. Granted the sport is difficult, you will need more than three hours of water instruction. Kiters who have sailed, windsurfed, surfed and wakeboarded could pick up the sport quicker and faster. It is 90% about the kite and 10% about the board. Meaning, understanding the nuances of the wind and controlling the kite within its power, your kite flying skills and knowledge about your environment is key to enjoying the sport, your safety and the safety of others in the water and on the beach.

In August 2009, after a number of frustrating attempts at lessons in New York and Cape Hatteras, NC due to lack of wind in the months of July – August, Jessica then ventured to the Columbia River Gorge, Oregon. The wind capital of the Pacific North West. “I first discovered the River Gorge through a kiter friend on Facebook.” Jessica a natural traveler has not ventured beyond California for travels to the West Coast. “It looks like a little piece of heaven, why has not anyone mentioned this place to me before?” Another loop hole in the kiting world is the discovery and the level of detail that existing kiting web properties can provide. “Information sharing about kite education, kite spots and the consistent engagement of kiters worldwide is what we hope to solve for the progression of the sport.” Kiteboarding is breaking down geographic and gender barriers for over a decade now. So many untold stories are raring to be shared that will inspire connoisseurs of the sport, viewers and those curious about it. The global and local community’s affinity for wind, water and kite is a natural glue. Every kiter is in love with a fellow kiter’s skills and his or her experiences.

For version 1 of Just Kite It dot com our goal is to provide kiters worldwide and those interested in the sport with as much information about kite education, kite spots around the world through editorially curated from user-generated stories. Version 1.5 will be wrapped around extreme entrepreneurship and technology events for the startup community. It is a known fact, there is a growing number of technologists and startup founders who kite. This could be attributed to the leadership of the Silicon Valley VC, Bill Tai who has been featured on Forbes.com. Version 2.0 of Just Kite It dot com will showcase a fully social web property with mobile applications for engagement in a global scale.

The average age of kiters range from 30-35 professionals with a slow, yet noticeable adaptation of the twenty-something and baby boomer demographics. There is also a growing number of women who are kiting, up 30% from 2008. Kiteboarding is a lifestyle sport and it is growing at a steady rate of 20% annually.

Jessica Valenzuela is also the Founder and Chief Principal of a New York based boutique digital branding agency, Mavin Digital, Inc. the creators of Just Kite It. Her co-founder Marek L. Biestek is the General and Managing Partner of a New York based hedge fund, MSMB Capital, LLC. Jessica and Marek are kiteboarders who met at a parking lot on Tobay Bay, New York after a kiting session.

About Just Kite It dot com (http://justkiteit.com)
Welcome to Just Kite It dot com, a content publisher and social community focused on kite education, sports tourism and connecting likeminded professionals of the sport.

Founded by two kiteboarding addikts, with backgrounds in media, digital branding, social media, finance management and startups, Just Kite It aims to provide a place for sharing information and knowledge kite education, kite spots around the world and connecting likeminded professionals of the sport.

You can find us on Twitter @jkiteit and on our Facebook Fan page.

Mission:
Just Kite It is your source for kite education, kite spot locations around the world, inspiring stories from pro-athletes and enthusiasts,  networking events and off-topic features that will offer insight and make you laugh at the same time.

Disruptive changes are good. It tests one’s capabilities to assess, focus and re-calibrate in many areas of your life. It is a character building experience – going above and beyond your comfort zone no matter what the odds are or how low you are feeling. More specifically, embracing the change without aggravating the other important factors of your life – not an easy feat. A dear friend reminded me in the early weeks  “Jess, you are still the Founder and Principal of Mavin Digital, Inc., you have your team, clients, friends and community.” That was a defining moment.

Lessons Learned: When Change Happens

As a new entrepreneur and startup owner it can be truly damaging when change happens unexpectedly. It is easy to shutdown, yet not the best solution when you are growing a business. Here’s what I learned from this experience:

1. Seek counsel from your trusted circle. The first life-line I called on (and continue to do so) are my friends. Friends I know who at any given point in time will offer a fair point of view, provide support and encouragement.
2. Honest assessment of the problem. A quiet self-evaluation of the change is always useful. I believe in the chemistry of cause and effect. Accept the flaws that occurred between point A and point B then ask the question: Are there defining solutions that could get you back on track? As someone who firmly believes in the power of the human spirit my answer is yes. Though, the realist in me says when your very best does not move mountains you simply have to let go. It is not an admittance of defeat nor a reflection on your abilities. It simply means you are human.
3. Admit in hurts. I’m pretty darn good at this. The simple act of admitting pain during any major changes in your life is soothing and I believe helps you heal.
4. Allow yourself to heal. This means you’re not taking the memory of that pain with you to point C. Get up and march forward like you were doing it for the first time.
5. Get back on track. Don’t lose sight of the other important factors in your life. I slowly reminded myself that as an entrepreneur I have a responsibility to my company, my team, my clients, my friends and my community. That is a lot of responsibility. Change is a poor excuse to under perform.

Another dear friend reminded me and I firmly believe in “change is a gift.” Blessings and good fortune are waiting around the bend. Thank you friends for the support and encouragement.

Special thanks to my rockstar intern, Christopher for creating these lovely Twitter backgrounds! Enjoy!

While in San Francisco for the recently concluded Web 2.0 Expo I had a moment to catch up with Suzane Xie (@suzannez) CEO and co-Founder at Weardrobe. The seedlings of our friendship began in the summer of 2008 in New York City. Connected by Women 2.0, our pursuit and passion for community building and our startups. It was truly extraordinary to see her and listen to the evolution of Weardrobe and its continued success. Here’s an excerpt of our conversation. I hope it will inspire you as it has moved me.

@mavindigital: Girlfriend am so proud of you! Tell me about your experience in the accelerator program at SXSW. How did you get in?

@suzannez: Truly an unplanned moment. I was not planning on being at SXSW until I saw an email message from @tikkers asking for startups to submit to the SXSW program. The short of it, we submitted Weardrobe for the social networking catetory and was selected as one of the 25 finalists to present. Then everything evolved from that moment. @guykawasaki is now one of our fans, and has been helpful in making introductions. Listen in on what people think about Weardrobe on Twitter.

@suzannez: Haha, hardly the case. I’d like to be the next @garyvee first before I ever get to be the next Oprah.

Note: Suzanne and I were laughing hysterically at that moment over something really geeky.

@suzannez: We (@richtong, my co-Founder of Weardrobe) made the decision to relocate to Palo Alto for many reasons. One being closer to Stanford University opened doors to a pool of really great intern talent. Second, I wanted to establish Weardrobe as an integral part of the Valley startup and investor community for future growth. The Valley investor community sees more dealflows and are open to new ideas versus microscoping the bottomline, hence by the time we are ready for sizeable funding, the hope is to tap into those relationships. Today, we have a converted home office in Palo Alto which is extremely accessible for our interns at Stanford. In the last six months, we re-launched Weardrobe with new site design and a clearer vision for our business model.

@suzannez: Our focus for the past six months is to improve the quality of our content. The hard-work and focus has paid off as we’ve seen traffic growth from 35K to 125K with over half a million page views and it increases daily. Weardrobe has made clothing more discoverable and searcheable for the average fashion fiend or wanna be fashion fiend. Any woman with a closet has a story to share about their personal style. What best place to start sharing that story is from your own closet. Fashion retailers like American Apparel and other fashion retailers of which I am unable to share at the moment since we are in the dealmaking process are beginning to see the value we add in the fashion ecosystem. Google as a search engine is a gateway to the entire internet, but they can’t cover every niche vertical. Weardrobe is your gateway to discovering wearable fashion.

@suzannez: Weardrobe’s audience has an age median of female and 19 years old. College to late twenties, who we refer to as the fashion influencers. 95% of our users are female, who also holds the majority of the purchasing power.  We have over 5,000 registered users and very close relationships with our top users who we are in contact with on a weekly basis. We are also launching “The Weardrobe Closet” -  where our most trusted members get to borrow and style items from our retail partners so they can share their personal style and inspire other girls on Weardrobe. I’m very excited about this!

@suzannez: No! Of course you’re not too old for Weardrobe! The idea is that hopefully our early adopters will convert the main stream in using Weardrobe as a style discovery tool versus depending on runway fashion for inspiration. Plus, who doesn’t like the idea of borrowing clothing from an endless closet?

@suzannez: I believe the current economic climate is the best time for entrepreneurs to start their business. When the market improves your business will grow with the market. The plus side of a slow economy is that startups like ours have access to a wealth of brilliant talent who can help make the difference in the growth of your business.

@suzannez: @richtong and I started with our own savings at first. Then when we saw that this novel idea started to truly blossom and evolve we sought for convertible notes in order to relocate to Palo Alto. Convertible notes allows a lender to loan money without your company being valued too early on. We are just starting to talk to Angel investors and VCs now for a valued round.

@suzannez: Personally, I wouldn’t include a VC firm in my funding equation until I am ready for that kind of expansion and scale. We have tried to grow Weardrobe for as long as possible before seeking a valued round of funding. Before institutional funding, you have more freedom to experiment and make mistakes. Regarding what happens to the founders post-funding, it would be ideal to stay on and help the company scale. However, that’s not always the best option for the business – my thinking would be “if someone is better positioned to oversee the growth of my baby” then it would be wise for me to give up the CEO post provided that my shares as Founder are in place.

@suzannez: Ha! Rich and I go way back.  We met during summercamp at Cornell during high school and have been friends ever since. When I was studying at the University of Chicago and he at Cornell Architecture, we started a high-end stationary business coast to coast. Our clients included the Palms Hotel and we even made a stationary for one of Donald Trump’s events. Rich and I have always worked well together – though we have had our fair share of arguments. All of our countless fights have proven that our partnership and friendship will endure any challenge. At the end of the day, his talent and skills are complementary to mine. Finding the right partner in your business is very key to your success.

@suzannez: (She has this big smile and her eyes just lights as shares this vignette) Well, I have this really geeky and superbly organized side of me. I like spreadsheets, which is probably why I decided to study econ and do investment banking before Weardrobe. I used to organize my closet by entering all the pieces of clothing I own into an excel spreadsheet. After completing this task and realizing how lame I was — I figured I better make someting cool out of it. And we did, Weardrobe!

I had such a fun time in San Francisco! Catching up with Suzanne has definitely convinced me that starting a startup was the best decisions I’ve made in my life. She’s pursuing her dreams and doing it well. I hope her story will inspire you to do the same.

About Weardrobe

Weardrobe is a fashion community focused not just on what you wear, but how you wear it. It was inspired by the unique and inspirational styles of “What I Wore” fashion bloggers and groups like wardrobe remix. You can start by searching for inspiration or by posting your own photo.

Meet the Founders:

Suzanne Xie (@suzannez)                                                     Rich Tong (@richtong)

“Persistence, persistence, persistence.” ~ Sawhney and Kundra @buzzable founders

Just added: 15% Special Registration Discount

Equity Matters: The Route to Nasdaq a seminar series hosted by Springboard Enterprises, NASDQ OMX and Capital One Bank aims to answer the burning questions that women entrepreneurs and future entrepreneurs have about the process and the diverse and creative ways to raise funds. Honored to be part of the panel How We Did It: Raising Capital The Entrepreneurs’ Perspective in New York City. Here’s a sneak preview of the program.*

April 3, 2009 Equity Matters: The Route To NASDAQ seminar New York City

8:30 – 9:00AM                Registration

9:00 – 9:30AM                Opening Session: The Capital Landscape

9:30 – 10:45AM               What We Look For -Raising Capital: The Lender & Investors’ Perspective

10:45AM – Noon             How We Did It – Raising Capital: The Entrepreneurs’ Perspective

Noon – 12:30PM             Zen and the Art of Financial Projections – a  Workshop

12:30 – 2:00PM               It’s All About You – Tuning-Up Your Business for Venture Capital: Working Lunch

Special Pitch Session (invitation only)

2:00 – 4:00PM                Presentation/Pitch Session

The seminar will be held at Columbia University. You can register for the full-day for $125, seminar only for $100 or afternoon presentations for $50.

Just added: 15% Registration Discount!

* Program may change without prior notice.

Equity Matters is coming to San Francisco, CA on May 21st at the Wharton West, University of Pennsylvania and in Madison, WI in September. More 2009 venues will be announced very soon so stay tuned!

Competition is heating up as hundreds of young start- ups and entrepreneurial teams across the country compete to land a spot in one of five “accelerator” programs, each with deadlines looming this month. At stake is seed money, access to leading experts and mentors, and the opportunity to turn an idea into a viable product, and a dream into a daily reality.

So, what does it take to get into one of these programs? And what should a team consider before applying in the first place?

To gain insight, I spoke with Buzzable.com founders and LaunchBox Digital 2008 alumni Satjot Sawhney and Ashish Kundra. Little more than six months after completing the LaunchBox program, Sawhney and Kundra launched, Buzzable.com on February 27^th, and have already seen the diverse ways in which users are utilizing their platform.  (For example, teachers in the Highered group are bouncing questions off of each other, folks in the Mexico group are having an asynchronous chat, and the Buzzable team manages and responds to ‘buzzable-related’ tweets in the buzzable support group.

We spoke about their experience applying for, and participating in, the 2008 cycle of the LaunchBox Digital accelerator program. In this blog post, the first of a two part series about their experience with LaunchBox, Sawhney and Kundra shed light on the application process itself, and the key questions and main mindset that lead to their acceptance into, and success within, the LaunchBox Digital accelerator program.

What made you decide to do apply for a program?

A combination of seed funding and the opportunity to work with people who would help the business grow. The truth is, cash behind you makes things easier. You don’t waste time over analyzing minor expenditures, and instead focus on product development.

Why LaunchBox?

They forced us to answer critical questions from the get- go. Even at our very first interview, they critiqued the crap out of our proposal in a way that was very specific to our proposed business. This was precisely the type of feedback we felt would be necessary to help us reach our maximum potential.

How far along was your product when you applied?

We were at a very conceptual stage when we applied for the program, and actually ended up changing our business completely.

Can you elaborate on the application process?

After submitting our initial application and participating in a phone interview, we were invited to DC for a face-to-face meeting. At that meeting, we spent an hour and a half with LaunchBox principals, really getting into the nitty gritty of the company and answering many tough questions, some of which we had not yet even considered.

We didn’t just wait around after the interview, either. We spent the entire week after our meeting in constant contact with LaunchBox, following up on all of the questions we had been unprepared for or unable to answer.

It was an intense period of dialogue, but we also saw it as an opportunity to learn as much as possible from the interview process.  Our thinking was, “We may not get in, but we are going to learn everything from these guys while we have their attention…”

What are the top three things entrepreneurs considering an incubator program should weigh in deciding whether to apply?

The first question is definitely, are you ready to climb the mountain? Are you willing to commit to working 14- 15 hours a day, alone or with a partner in order to see this thing through? Second, you should ask yourself whether you need the money. What will you use it for? Don’t just take it for the sake of taking it- have a use for it. Finally, figure out what attributes of a program are most important to you. For us, it was about the mentors, and about having advisors that would be willing to ask the tough questions.

Take some time to do some self analysis first, it will help you determine whether an incubator program makes sense, and which one would be the right fit for you and your team.

What personal attributes do you believe made you successful in applying and participating in the LaunchBox program?

Persistence, persistence, persistence.

I’d say that the interview process helps to narrow down who really has what it takes to go through the program itself.   It is sort of like college admissions in that sense—the partners WANT participating teams to succeed, and therefore use the vetting process to identify those companies they believe can manage the workload, and the up-and-down-roller-coaster ride of it all.

Do you have any final recommendations for teams applying to one of the incubator programs this year?

Be passionate and sincere. If you are serious and you think you have an idea that is going to be big- communicate that clearly. At the end of the day, they are funding people, not just good ideas. Show that you believe in your idea and your team without a shadow of a doubt, and that you have the drive and personality to keep pushing.

For more information on Buzzable, check out this article in TechCrunch, or follow @buzzable on twitter. Feeling inspired? Click here for details on the LaunchBox Digital accelerator program, or read-up on one of these other programs currently accepting applications: Amplifier, TechStars, Y-Combinator and DreamIT.

Alexis Rodich, MBA Candidate, Guest Blogger